The Lake Michigan Water Trail Association (LMWTA) challenges experienced
Lake Michigan kayakers to paddle legs of the 1,600 mile long trail and
report their trips to create a user-written trail guide. The LMWTA's Trail
Blazer Challenge will begin Memorial Day weekend and will be open throughout
the year.

The Challenge will create an online paddling guide by encouraging sea
kayakers to paddle a leg of the Lake Michigan Water Trail and be the first
to report their experience. The first reporters will be recognized as "Trail
Blazers" on the LMWTA website (LMWT.org).

The Trail Blazer Challenge reporting form on the LMWTA website features a
list of the 479 individual legs of the trail in the four states around the
lake. Paddlers can describe what they found at the put-in, on the lake trail
and at the landing. The reports will serve as a continually updated paddling
guide to amenities along the trail such as access, parking, camping,
restrooms, lodging and food.

The Trail Blazer Challenge begins on Saturday, May 25, 2013 to take
advantage of the three-day Memorial Day weekend. The LMWTA hopes paddlers
will travel a little further from home to explore and report on more remote
legs of the trail. The online reporting form and submitted reports will be
available throughout the year.

"The Trail Blazer Challenge is an exciting way for paddlers to help both
planners and other trail users build a better understanding of what a safe
trail for human powered watercraft on Lake Michigan requires" said Diane
Banta of the National Park Service and adviser to the LMWTA.